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Big Books of the Week

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Viking) leads holds this week. 

Other titles in demand include:

Passions in Death by J.D. Robb (St. Martin’s)

Capture or Kill by Vince Flynn & Don Bentley (Atria/Emily Bestler)

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner)

Safe Enough by Lee Child (Mysterious Pr.)

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)

These books and others publishing the week of September 2, 2024, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Seven LibraryReads and eleven Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir (Tor Nightfire), is the top LibraryReads pick.

“If you’re in the mood for a wonderfully disturbing book, this should be on your radar. A woman who can’t explain her constant exhaustion and inexplicably weary body discovers that she has been walking for miles overnight—but it’s what’s been happening during these excursions that will shock her and the reader alike. Delightfully chilling!”—Sharon Layburn, South Huntington Public Library, NY

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“Why are we all so tired all the time, even after sleeping for a full night? For one woman, the answer is much darker and tied into family history and the misdiagnosis of doctors. A compelling novella that demands to be read in a single sitting.”—William Carl, An Unlikely Story, Plainville, MA

Colored Television by Danzy Senna (Riverhead)

“Jane has been working on her second novel for a decade, but the finished product is met with a not very enthusiastic response by her agent. Stymied by her circumstances, Jane pins her hopes on a collaboration with a TV producer and makes some questionable choices. Readers will root for Jane to get out of the hole she’s dug for herself in this sharp dark comedy.”—Angela Strathman, Mid-Continent Public Library, MO

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“Incisive, of the moment, and darkly funny, I loved everything about Colored Television. Very few contemporary authors can so acutely examine race and class while maintaining a razor-sharp sense of humor, but Danzy Senna is in a league of her own.”—David Vogel, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI

The Notable Nonfiction pick is Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need To Know About the Films You’re Too Scared To Watch by Emily C. Hughes (Quirk; LJ starred review) 

The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers (Graydon House)

“English majors, librarians, and romance readers will love this book. Watching the relationship unfold between Erin and her Mystery Man over the pages of beloved books is delightful, plus they are each on their own individual journeys of self-discovery. This novel is a must read for book lovers everywhere!”—Jennifer Sullivan, Sno-Isle Libraries, WA

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“I am a sucker for a well-written and meaty romance and The Book Swap delivers. Erin and James are both imperfect people, but they also both have such a capacity for love and growth. Them falling in love through margin-writing in books is just the cherry on top.”—Amelia Yasuda, Queen Takes Book, Columbia, MD

Hall of Fame pick The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Viking) is also an Indie Next pick:

“Matt Haig’s wonderful book about climate change, aging, and recovering from guilt. Widowed Grace is left a house in Spain by a friend she hasn’t heard from in over 30 years. She heads out on an adventure where new friends and life-altering changes await.”—Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books, Santa Rosa Beach, FL

Other Hall of Fame picks include What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley (Bantam) and Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday).

Seven additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner) is the #1 Indie Next pick

“Rachel Kushner turns noir on its head in this mesmerizing, philosophical, and darkly funny tale. Creation Lake is a page-turner crackling with electricity from one of our greatest living writers—a spy thriller with literary teeth.”—Chantel McCray, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, KS

Best Copy Available : A True Crime Memoir by Jay Baron Nicorvo (Univ. of Georgia)

“Do not shy away from this memoir. It’s a hard read but it’s so worth it. Nicorvo is masterful in his ability to share the trauma of his childhood. Part memoir, part true crime, completely unforgettable!”—Julie Slavinsky, Warwick’s, La Jolla, CA

We’re Alone: Essays by Edwidge Danticat (Graywolf)

“In so few pages, Edwidge Danticat weaves language that situates us in the moment with compassion and clarity. From odes that ache and appreciate the humanity of brilliant authors, to writings about Haiti and storms to come, Danticat threads it all.”—Mari Guzman, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, tr. by Asa Yoneda (Soft Skull)

“What will the world look like when humanity is near its end? In short glimpses, this book gives us insight to small groups of people and how they live and survive in an ever-changing, increasingly dystopian world. This is speculative fiction at its best.”—Miranda Myers, Changing Hands, Tempe, AZ

Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker (Little, Brown)

“This incredible story of domestic violence survivors had me on the edge of my seat. Fans of Godshot will recognize Bieker’s humor and depth. But in Madwoman, there’s growth, not always for the better, of a character trying to forget her dark past.”—Emily Berg, Books & Books, Key West, FL

Where the Forest Meets the River by Shannon Bowring (Europa)

“In Where the forest Meets the River, Bowring takes us back to Dalton, Maine, where some of my favorite and not-so-favorite people live. Dalton has its secrets, but Bowring spins a tale full of love, sorrow, and laughter.”—Jayne Rowsam, Mystery to Me, Madison, WI

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (Ballantine)

“I’ve always wanted a sister; this book gifted me four. Four unique characters, each flawed but lovable in their own way, who seem like they would never be able to get along. Pick up this book, then call your therapist. Better yet, your sister.”—Caroline Giblin, Thunder Road Books, Spring Lake, NJ

In the Media

People previews this fall’s must-reads. “Family & Love Stories” include How To Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster by Muriel Leung (Norton), Olive Days by Jessica Elisheva Emerson (Counterpoint), Don’t Be a Stranger by Susan Minot (Knopf), The Women Behind the Door by Roddy Doyle (Viking), and A Reason To See You Again by Jami Attenberg (Ecco). Historical fiction includes The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (Harper; LJ starred review), The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R. Chambers (Sourcebooks Landmark), The Colony Club by Shelley Noble (Morrow Paperbacks), Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst (Random), and Playground by Richard Powers (Norton).

Memoirs and nonfiction include Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me by Glory Edim (Ballantine), Frighten the Horses by Oliver Radclyffe (Roxane Gay Bks.; LJ starred review), I Will Do Better: A Father’s Memoir of Heartbreak, Parenting, and Love by Charles Bock (Abrams), Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell (Viking), and A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy…A Memoir of Sorts by Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate). Mysteries and thrillers include The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister (Counterpoint), Guilt and Ginataan by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley), Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker (Little, Brown), The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Viking), and Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle-Felton (Holt). 

The “Picks” section spotlights the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses, based on Mick Herron's “Slough House” novels. Plus, there is a feature on Lauren Sánchez, who has a new picture book, The Fly Who Flew to Space, illus. by Raleigh Stewart (Collective Book Studio), due out September 10. 

Reviews

NYT reviews Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, tr. by Asa Yoneda (Soft Skull): “Under the Eye of the Big Bird bucks linear narrative, constantly swerving and doubling back—a descendant might resemble an ancestor, until we realize the chapters have been marching in a different direction”; Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (Ballantine): “Though not all of Mellors’s metaphors land (addicts are compared to mice; both ‘didn’t have collarbones’) and her prose can collapse into sentimentality, she is nonetheless able to capture the ferality, stickiness and beauty of both sisterhood and grief”; and Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany by Harald Jähner (Basic): “In Vertigo, Jähner tries to have it both ways, blending secondhand nostalgia with a mild didacticism.”

Washington Post reviews Small Rain by Garth Greenwell (Farrar): “It’s a daring, mysterious work that audaciously and successfully marries the physical and the metaphysical”; Interpretations of Love by Jane Campbell (Grove): “This suspenseful, morally complex plot reminded me a bit of Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Let’s hope Campbell’s agent is cooking up more ways to get this unusual and interesting writer back to her desk”; and Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker (Little, Brown): “Madwoman is a thoroughly modern addition to feminist fiction about mental illness and motherhood, a canon established by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper and Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar.” Plus, there are short reviews of three new thrillers: Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn (S.& S.), I Want You More by Swan Huntley (Zibby), and Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki, tr. by Polly Barton (Ecco). 

LA Times reviews The De Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens by Laurent Bouzereau (Running Pr.; LJ starred review): “This is less a critical consideration or biography so much as, to borrow the title of the unnerving Frederick Exley novel, a fan’s notes.”

Briefly Noted

The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature shortlist is announced.

Audiofile announces the September Earphones Award winners.

September’s Costco Connection features The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Viking). 

 Amazon editors select the best books of September. 

LitHub highlights 27 new books publishing this week. 

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week. 

NYT previews “24 Works of Fiction and Poetry to Read This Fall.”

LA Times has a fall preview.

Washington Post highlights 41 new books for fall. 

Time previews the most anticipated books for fall. Vulture also has a preview. 

The Guardian rounds up the best crime and thriller books for the month. 

NYT has a feature on author Danzy Senna and her new book, Colored Television (Riverhead). LA Times also has an interview with Senna. 

Washington Post profiles author Mark Greaney, touting him as the “Tom Cruise of thriller writers.”

Authors on Air

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson talks with CBS Sunday Morning about her new memoir, Lovely One (Random), ethics, and the future of the court. Jackson will also appear on CBS Mornings and Today.

PBS Newshour talks with Wall Street Journal reporter Valerie Bauerlein about her book The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty (Ballantine). 

NPR’s Shortwave talks about how algorithms and AI work in society with Kyle Chayka, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture (Doubleday), and Joy Buolamwini, Unmasking AI: My Mission To Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines (Random).

Katie Ledecky, Just Add Water: My Swimming Life (S. & S.), visits CBS Mornings.

RoseMarie Terenzio, JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography (Gallery), will appear on GMA.

Tamron Hall and Lish Steiling, A Confident Cook: Recipes for Joyous, No-Pressure Fun in the Kitchen (Hyperion Avenue), also visit GMA today.

LitHub highlights “The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in September.”

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